Archive: Opinions

I was interested to see that by sponsoring the repeal of the estate tax, our representative Tom Reed hasn't forgotten who he really represents: people who stand to inherit millions of dollars that they did nothing to earn.  If he's successful, that will leave the rest of us to make up $25,000,000,000 each year by contributing more of the money we work hard for, so that the inheritors of estates with assets over $5,250,000 can avoid a tax that amounts to 7.7% on the typical multi-million dollar estate. That rate is less than we pay in sales tax for everyday necessities.

While Reed points to family farms and businesses as victims of the estate tax, the Tax Policy Center states that there were only 20 small businesses  or  small farms nationwide that owed any estate tax in 2013, and in those few cases,  the estate paid less than 5% on average . Many of an estate's assets are in the form of stock gains that are never taxed until sold.  Without an estate tax,  they would never be taxed at all. A person who puts $1,000,000 into stocks that eventually rise in value to $11,000,000 has a $10,000,000 gain that has never been taxed.  And that never-taxed gain will be inherited by someone who has done nothing at all to earn those funds. In contrast, you and I probably pay an incremental tax rate of 15% or more each year on the money we earn through our hard work or small investments.

It's concerning that our representative is so interested in protecting the heirs of one estate in 200 by giving huge tax breaks to those who need them the least. This kind of thinking helps explain the ever-accelerating wealth gap between the super-rich and the rest of us that is leading to an aristocracy of elites who through their wealth influence more and more of our daily and political lives.

Perhaps our representative should be devoting his time to improving our lives rather than  on efforts to eliminate a tax that doesn't affect any average family.

Ted Laux
Lansing, NY

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